Diablo III and WoW On The Same Level? Blizzard Talks about Their Next Big Thing

Written by:
R Bryant FranciscloseAuthor: R Bryant FrancisName: Bryant FrancisEmail: bf08@comcast.netSite:http://writingronin.tumblr.com/About: R. Bryant Francis is a former contributing writer to the Jace Hall Show who specializes in gaming, pop culture, and all-around geekiness. Outside of the show, Bryant pursues a career in Hollywood as a producer and filmmaker.See Authors Posts (226)

The Diablo III beta and full-game details have begun to emerge from the hallowed depths, and lo and behold a fanboy stirring did result. Details came out about the upcoming beta for the much-anticipated sequel, and players were shocked–shocked I tell you–to learn that in order to participate in Diablo III, they would require a constant internet connection, even for single-player play.

That hasn’t made people happy. Protests like this have occurred before for PC games, especially Ubisoft and EA titles that have enforced harsh restrictions.

Diablo III at least has multiplayer mode, but Blizzard explains in an interview with MTV gaming as to the logic behind this decision.

“Internally I don’t think [DRM] ever actually came up when we talked about how we want connections to operate. Things that came up were always around the feature-set, the sanctity of the actual game systems like your characters. You’re guaranteeing that there are no hacks, no dupes. All of these things were points of discussion, but the whole copy protection, piracy thing, that’s not really entering into why we want to do it.”

So Blizzard, unlike Ubisoft, is 100% looking out for the players on this one–thanks to the Battle.net system, they can keep cheaters out and store characters on their own servers, much like they’ve done for World of Warcraft. Since they’ve had so much experience with battle.net, they thought this would go over well with the fans.

They also cite a problem from Diablo 2 where characters created in offline play couldn’t go online, so players would have to start over. This system prevents that.

Our take–if this were 1998, yeah, it wouldn’t be cool. But it’s 2011, and internet connections (while still behind in this country compared to South Korea) are not only just about everywhere, they’re increasing in potential power. It’s not going to be hard to keep connected for Diablo III, ’cause it really isn’t going to affect your offline play.

R. Bryant Francis is a former contributing writer to the Jace Hall Show who specializes in gaming, pop culture, and all-around geekiness. Outside of the show, Bryant pursues a career in Hollywood as a producer and filmmaker.